Beggars Can't be Choosers
by manyissues101
Summary: -LeonCentric- It was his favorite line, perhaps read from a book or preached by the elderly. He didn’t know from where he’d picked it up, but it had been a mantra of his for years.


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_Beggars can't be choosers. _

It was his favorite line, perhaps read from a book or preached by the elderly. He didn't know from where he'd picked it up, but it had been a mantra of his for years. Squall Leonheart, now Leon to anyone without a death wish, had been using this saying for a long time.

"_Beggars can't be choosers,"_ he told Sora, though it was more a whispered afterthought to himself. Sora didn't quite understand, but what did he understand anyway? Leon considered tossing aside his adage, so long as Sora didn't have the keyblade.

Sora, with his big clumsy feet and large gloved hands, didn't know the first thing about saving the worlds. Sora's world was gone, but he barely seemed to care. Sora hadn't watched his family lose their hearts, or heard the fallen screaming as he zipped away, safe in a gummi ship. Sora didn't know what was truly at stake.

Leon did.

"_Beggars can't be choosers," _he chided Yuffie. Yuffie was a mere child, still one, but seasoned from years of learning to survive. Yuffie wanted to help Sora, to go with him, but no one would allow her. She pouted, because she thought that if she helped restore the worlds then the memory of their crumbling from beneath her would hurt less.

She told Leon that she didn't want to be a chooser.

Aerith spent the night talking her out of the motion. If she was off saving the worlds then who would bother Leon, who would shine Cid's accessories for extra money to buy new ninja stars, and didn't their gummi ship only have three seats anyway?

"_Beggars can't be choosers_," he whispered to Aerith when Cloud left to find Tifa. Aerith had watched the man walk off, his mind consumed with the young woman, leaving Aerith there waiting for him. Leon, who was never really good at this comforting stuff, only patted her leg.

Yuffie assured her that Cloud probably only wanted to find Tifa to give her a good reprimand. While the others had stayed in Traverse, Tifa had left to find adventure. Cloud followed and found himself a world of trouble. Aerith smiled, even though Tifa was a close friend, and nodded.

"_Beggars can't be choosers," _Leon told himself, barely stopping to glance at his reflection in a shop window. Sora hadn't been seen lately, and slowly they were beginning to forget about him. Maybe something had happened. Leon didn't want it to be true, but if it was then he secretly hoped that the keyblade would come to him next.

He wondered why they were in this town with no real protection from the heartless. There was no way to stop them, and they always kept coming. Leon wondered why he couldn't remember how he got back to Hollow Bastion, and why he kept getting mental flashes of big clumsy feet and large gloved hands.

"_Beggars can't be choosers," _he told Sora. Sora was growing up now, and he'd grown into his limbs. He was strong, and brave, and radiant. He held the keyblade with poise, swung it with practice. He was the natural that Leon would never be, the natural that Leon hoped to be.

He watched Sora sitting on a stone wall, engaging in some sort of activity with his companions. Sora, with his sinewy muscles and carefree laugh, knew what it took to save the worlds. His world was gone, and then there, but without him, but he didn't care because first he had to save his best friend. Sora lost his heart, and he'd felled many a people (nobodies they may be, but people they appeared), watching them fade. Sora had watched one best friend drift from him while the other condemned himself. Sora knew what was at stake, and he knew it well.

Leon watched all of this, saw it dance across Sora's eyes, and thought it good that he was neither a beggar nor a chooser.

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Kisses to reviewers.

For the Leon lover in all of us.

This is not to be construed as Yaoi.

Happy summer to all those out!

By _Manyissues101_

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